random wooden pieces -- walnut, beech, rose and ash -- are assembled using simple instructions to make a chair or stool, rendering the traditional shaker chair portable. 

On this week’s edition of the Gadget Lab Show, the gang takes a gander at the Nook Simple Touch e-reader and Pebble Smartwatch, the most successful Kickstarter project ever.

Gadget Lab editor Jon Phillips and Reviews editor Michael Calore open up the show with a look at the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch E-Ink reader. It’s been updated from last year’s model to include an LED backlight that illuminates the screen from behind, making it easier to read at night. It’s still got a touch-sensitive screen. The light adds $40 to the price, making it $140. If you’re on the fence as to what e-reader to buy, Michael advises not to look at the e-reader itself, but the platform it belongs to.

Next up, staff writer Alexandra Chang joins Jon to talk about the Pebble Smartwatch, which she got to check out first-hand in Palo Alto, California. The display is a memory LCD, which is easy to read in bright sunlight, and refreshes more quickly than similar-looking E-Ink displays. The Pebble team sold 85,000 watches, and reached $10.2 million in their Kickstarter campaign. Pebble Smartwatches should begin shipping to the original Kickstarter backers in September.

To close the show, Michael joins Jon again to go hands-on with the new Big Jambox from Jawbone. Its design apes the original Jambox, but the speaker is about 10 inches long, and bigger in every dimension. For those who aren’t familiar, the original Jambox is an uber-popular $200 Bluetooth speaker. This larger model is $300, and works exactly the same as the original, but is way louder and has better audio quality all around.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio below:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #151

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0151.mp3

Your new phone booth. Photo: Virgin Atlantic

Whether you want it or not, phone calls are coming to commercial airplane flights. But like any new service, there are technical limitations, a premium price point, and a chance someone is going to be upset sitting next to a Chatty Kathy.

On Tuesday, Virgin Atlantic announced that customers would be able to make cell phone calls and send text messages while traveling across the Atlantic. The airline announced the immediate availability of the service on select aircraft, with the feature expanding to 20 aircraft by the end of 2012.

So how will the airline keep passengers in contact with their friends back home? Virgin is using satellites and microcells.

The technology behind the system is quite straightforward. According to Virgin Atlantic’s technology partner, AeroMobile, each plane with the feature will be equipped with a picocell installed in the cabin above the heads of passengers. The picocell acts as a tiny GPRS cell tower. Because the picocell is so close to passengers, user cell phones will actually emit relatively modest signals because they won’t have to work very hard in securing a network handshake. Airplane instruments are extremely sensitive, so the less random signal in the air, the better.

To communicate with people on the ground, the picocell uses the same satellite communications system as the airplane to connect calls. AeroMobile told Wired that because of capacity restraints in existing satellite communications systems, their picocell could only connect to six mobile devices at a time.

Whether the in-flight calls will be a convenience or nuisance remains to be seen. But before you start charging your phones or purchase a pair of noise-canceling headphones, consider a few caveats.

Initially, only customers of British carriers O2 and Vodafone will be able to use the service. If and when the service is adopted by US carries, it will work with GMS phones only — Virgin’s system does not work with the CDMA networks used by Sprint and Verizon. So if you’re a Sprint or Verizon customer, you may as well put your phone back into airplane mode.

Because of an FCC ban on cell-phone calls from airplanes in flight, the AeroMobile system is disabled when an aircraft is within 250 miles of the US border. The FCC had proposed easing the restrictions on in-flight calling in 2007, but nixed the plan, citing technical issues and complaints from the public. Apparently no one wants to sit next to someone calling his doctor for test results while 30,000 feet in the air.

Virgin Atlantic says that the new call feature is targeted at business travelers, and is intended for use in exceptional situations. These exceptional situations appear to come down to a passenger’s willingness to pay a premium for a quick call or text message. Indeed: Customers can expect to pay premium international rates for keeping in touch while in the air.

The upshot: The chances are slim you’ll be stuck next to a someone gabbing away on your next flight. Unless, of course, you’re sitting next someone with a story to tell and money to burn.

Designed by Dan Hinde | Country: United Kingdom

“D&AD challenged students to create a new brand of Scotch whisky, this included naming the brand, an identity design, packaging and a container. My response is Flora & Fauna, a Superior Scotch inspired by the Miracle of Mother Nature.”

Designed by Diego Ballester | Country: Argentina

“Imagine a herd of wild stallions galloping over smooth, white hills, their black coats reflecting the light of the moon. This very image lived inside winemaker Ernesto Catena’s mind, and kept his primal attachment to land and nature alive during his time as a university student. After years of travel, when Ernesto planted his vineyard in Mendoza, “Padrillos” was born. These intense wines express the primordial forces latent in our fertile land, and the wild spirit of Argentina’s true varietals.”

bicyclists to this pavilion in china may access a rooftop cycling arena which appears to float above the glass-enclosed ground level.

Walmart's "Get on the Shelf" contest, which saw more than 4,000 inventors and small businesses compete for the chance to get their product into Walmart stores, has wrapped up, and the winners have been announced. They are: HumanKind Water, PlateTopper and SnapIt Eyeglass Repair Kit. Wait, really? Huh. Well, at least two of the three are ethical companies. HumanKind gives 100 percent of its net profits to organizations that provide access to clean drinking water in underdeveloped communities worldwide. And PlateTopper—a plastic gizmo that covers food on plates, replacing plastic wrap—donates to the anti-bullying campaign Jaylen's Challenge. SnapIt offers no such pretensions, but that also means they'll spend less time talking around their decision to work with retailers as unethical as Walmart. See ads for all three products after the jump.

How common is your birthday?

(via explore / The Atlantic)

When asked what he wished he would have known earlier, Seth Godin answered “It’s going to be ok.”

(via @rameadows)